Page 60 - Annual Report 2010

ANNUAL REPORT 2010

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Fund for the year ending 31 December 2010 was carried out by the external auditor, KPMG, appointed following the conclusion of the EIB Group joint invitation to tender exercise in 2008.

In relation to the European Commission's shareholder participation in EIF, the Court of Auditors operates within a specific tripartite agreement providing a framework for the audit of the participation's value.

The Audit Board annually confirms that, to the best of its knowledge and judgement, the operations of the Fund have been carried out in compliance with the formali -ties and procedures laid down in the Statutes and the Rules of Procedure, and that the financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of the Fund as regards its assets and liabilities, and of the results of its operations for the financial year under review. This infor-mation is included in the Annual Report submitted by the Board of Directors to the General Meeting.

The Audit Board conducts its activity following the stand-ards of the audit profession. An Annual Report from the Audit Board to the General Meeting provides a summary of the Audit Board’s activities during the past year and of its opinions on the financial statements. This report is published on the EIF website www.eif.org. The General Meeting takes note of the conclusions of the Audit Board before approving the EIF Annual Report.

Audit and Controls

EIF’s principal audit and control mechanisms include both internal and external auditors, the activities of which are coordinated by the Audit Board.

Internal Audit examines and evaluates the relevance and effectiveness of the internal control systems and the pro-cedures involved whilst the external auditors provide as-surance on the financial statements.

In addition, as both a European Union body and a fi -nancial institution, EIF cooperates with other independent control bodies such as the Internal Audit of the European Commission and the European Court of Auditors entrusted with such tasks under the Treaty or other regulations.

The European Court of Auditors is responsible for exam-ining the accounts of all revenue and expenditure of the European Union and the results of its audits are published. Whilst EIF has its own independent external audit struc-ture, the deployment of European funds under mandates, such as the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme, is also subject to control by the European Court of Auditors.

The Audit Board has the statutory responsibility of the audit of the accounts of the EIF, as stated in EIF Statutes (Article 22) and Rules of Procedure (Article 17). In order to discharge this duty the Audit Board may have recourse to external auditors, as stated in the Rules of Procedure (Article 19). The audit of the financial statements of the